Speaking of Disappearing Curveballs…

His first start back from the DL, I noted with some alarm that Marcum threw only 4 curveballs all night instead of his normal evenly-balanced repetoire. Well, he’s quelled any worries about his elbow with two sparkling starts in a row, but last night he backed off even further on throwing his Curve, tossing it only twice all game.

Now I’m inclined to think this is a move for the sake of his ERA, not a tender elbow. Marcum’s slider was calculated as the best in the majors by THT last year, and his changeup is equally amazing. However, opposing batters hit over .300 against his curveball. Still nice to have as a “show me” pitch, but probably a smart adjustment to keep it that way…

Marcum has bad mechanics? I’ve never heard that before- what’s wrong with them?

He said he thought is was a result of throwing his cutter more/too often. Yikes, I didn’t notice that either he’s throwing his slider with a lot less break or it’s gone, too. Or else he’s done the Litsch thing where he just throws one pitch that is a mix between a slider and a cutter. Yeah, yeah, Papelbon already’s named it the “Slutter”…